Congratulations! You won! Virus

Few web annoyances are worse than noisy sounds and videos that play automatically when you’re surfing the web. But what really takes the cake is this “Congratulations! You won!” pop-up that’s been going around in various forms for a while. In some cases, this “Congratulations! You won!” audio message goes along with relatively harmless ads. These ads are obnoxious and of course misleading, but they’re not viruses or trojans or any other junk like that.

But we’ve also come across a few real viruses that use the “Congratulations! You won!” message to get unsuspecting web users to download badware. One particularly egregious example is the pop-up that claims you are the millionth visitor to a website and that you’ve won a free laptop. Sadly, the excitement of being a winner is deflated when you realize you’ve let a virus into your hard drive and are not a winner. That’s not a fun moment.

There are several versions of the Congratulations! You won! virus, but all can be eliminated by a good antispyware program. If you’re getting this audio nuisance repeatedly, it probably means you have something bad on your PC. Here’s how you can get rid of it.

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Stop Congratulations! You won! Virus processes:

[random].exe

DIY Congratulations! You won! Virus Removal Instructions

Start by removing the above files. If you're not sure how to do this, refer to the instructions below.

Note: In any files I mention above, “%UserProfile%” is a variable referring to your current user’s profile folder. (Not an iEuphemism for muth@fugg@#*!@.) So if you’re using Windows NT/2000/XP/7, by default this is “C:\Documents and Settings\[CURRENT USER]” (e.g., “C:\Documents and Settings\NoahFence”).

How to Manually Delete Badware Files

Need some removing badware files help? No biggie. While you should only manually delete badware files if you're comfy editing your system, you'll find it's pretty easy. And probably really satisfying.

How to delete badware files in Windows XP/Vista/7:

1. Click your Windows Start menu, then click "Search."
2. A pop up will ask, "What do you want to search for?" Click "All files and folders."
3. Type a badware file in the search box, and select "Local Hard Drives."
4. Click "Search." Once the badware file is found, delete it.

How to stop badware processes:

1. Click the Start menu, select Run.
2. Type taskmgr.exe into the the Run command box, and click "OK." You can also launch the Task Manager by pressing keys CTRL + Shift + ESC.
3. Click Processes tab, and find badware processes.
4. Once you've found the badware processes, right-click them and select "End Process" to kill badware.

How to remove badware registry keys:

Backup your registry before you edit it. Then...

1. Click the Start menu, and click "Run." An "Open" field will appear. Type "regedit" and click "OK " to open up your Registry Editor. In Windows 7, just type "regedit" into the "Search programs and files" box in the Start menu.
2. Registry Editor opens as a two-paned window: the left side lets you select registry keys,the right side shows the values of any selected registry key.
3. To find a badware registry key, select "Edit," then select "Find," and in the search bar type any of badware 's registry keys.
4. When the badware registry key appears, to delete the badware registry key, right-click it, and select "Modify," then select "Delete."

How to delete badware DLLs:

1. Open the Start menu, and click "Run." Type "cmd" in Run, and click "OK." (In Windows 7, just type "regedit" into the "Search programs and files" box in the Start menu.)
2. To change your current directory, type "cd" in the command box, press "Space," and enter the full directory where the badware DLL is located. If you're not sure where the badware DLL is located, enter "dir" in the command box to display a directory's contents. To go one directory back, type "cd .." in the command box and press "Enter."
3. When you've found a badware DLL, type "regsvr32 /u SampleDLLName.dll" (e.g., "regsvr32 /u jl27script.dll") and press "Enter."

That's it. If you want to restore any badware DLL you removed, type "regsvr32 DLLJustDeleted.dll" (e.g., "regsvr32 jl27script.dll") into your command box, and press "Enter."

Did badware change your homepage?

1. Select Start menu > Control Panel > Internet Options > General.
2. Type your preferred home page's URL.
3. Click "Use Default," "Apply," and "OK."